“CRUEL” Chancellor George Osborne was warned yesterday that he faces a tax credits-style insurrection over cuts to disability benefits after the devastating human cost was laid bare.

Plans to slash personal independence payments (PIP) were the most significant part of £3.5 billion annual cuts package included in Mr Osborne’s Budget on Wednesday.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) pointed to Office for Budget Responsibility analysis yesterday showing that 370,000 claimants will lose an average of £3,500 every year.

The life-destroying loss will hit disabled people who need help going to the toilet, dressing and leaving the house.
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said it marked a “new low” for a Chancellor already notorious for making heartless cuts.

Confronting the Tory in the Commons, he said: “We know that so far on the Chancellor’s watch, people with severe disabilities were hit 19 times harder than those without disabilities.

“Even for a Chancellor who has repeatedly cut public spending on the backs of those least likely or least able to fight back, this represents a new low. I believe it’s morally reprehensible.”

The policy has also come under fire from Tory MPs and members.

Conservative Disability Group webmaster Graeme Ellis quit the party and shut down the group’s site on Wednesday, leaving a note on the home page saying the site had “closed owing to disability cuts.”

And Tory MP Andrew Percy warned Mr Osborne yesterday that a “significant” number of backbenchers are ready to rebel over the issue.

Mr Percy has organised a letter of protest that urges the Chancellor to consider “the message it sends and the numbers it will affect.

“The government has a very small majority so you don’t need very many for this to be a problem of parliamentary arithmetic,” he told BBC Radio 4’s World At One.

“It is fair to say the numbers on this who have expressed concern are very significant indeed.”

Tory MP Johnny Mercer also expressed “concern” over the PIP cuts on social media, writing: “Not sure right direction. We must look after our most vulnerable at every turn.”

It opens up the possibility of a rebellion against Mr Osborne on the scale of against his proposed cuts to tax credits.

Mr Percy was among 20 Tory MPs who voted against the cut last year, which, along with a defeat in the Lords, helped force Mr Osborne into a humiliating climb down.

But Labour warned that shameless Mr Osborne could try to get away with the cut without giving MPs a vote.

Commons leader Chris Grayling failed to rule out smuggling the policy into law through secondary legislation during business questions yesterday.

Shadow work and pensions secretary Owen Smith said: “This government has a shameful reputation for trying to push through legislation without scrutiny, but it will be utterly unacceptable for them to try to take billions of pounds away from disabled people without even holding a vote in Parliament.”

Some £1.3 billion will be cut from PIP by the end of the parliament in 2020-21 — one-third of the total cuts to be made that year.

Mr McDonnell vowed the next Labour government would reverse both tax cuts and reinstate disability benefits.